System and method for operating an endpoint agent at an endpoint device

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for operating an endpoint agent at an endpoint device. Certain embodiments include a computer-implemented method for operating an endpoint agent at an endpoint device, including: operating the endpoint agent to selectively subscribe to events corresponding to activities occurring at an endpoint platform; processing events received from a message bus by the endpoint agent, where the events processed by the endpoint agent are events to which the endpoint agent has subscribed; and communicating, to a service, information corresponding to the events processed by the endpoint agent. Other embodiments of this aspect of the invention may include corresponding stand-alone and/or network computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on one or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform one or more of these actions.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation application and claimspriority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/189,472, filed Nov. 13,2018, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPERATING A PROTECTED ENDPOINTDEVICE,” the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to the field of computers andsimilar technologies, and in particular to security system softwareutilized in this field. Still more particularly, it relates to a method,system and computer-usable medium for operating an endpoint agent at anendpoint device.

Description of the Related Art

Endpoint devices may be used to communicate with networks (e.g., LANs,the Internet, WANs, etc.) as well as with other endpoint devices. Usersfrequently interact with physical, system, data, and services resourcesof all kinds, as well as each other, on a daily basis using endpointdevices. Activities occurring at the endpoint devices, whetheraccidental or intended, pose some degree of security risk. Accordingly,it is desirable to monitor activities occurring at the endpoint devicesthat may compromise the security of the endpoint devices and/or theresources communicating with the endpoint devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for operatingan endpoint agent at an endpoint device. The system may include one ormore computers that can be configured to perform particular operationsor actions by virtue of having software, firmware, hardware, or acombination of them installed on the system that in operation causes orcause the system to perform the operation of the endpoint agent at theendpoint device. One or more computer programs can be configured toperform particular operations or actions by virtue if includinginstructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause theapparatus to operate the endpoint agent at the endpoint device.

Certain embodiments include a computer-implemented method for operatingan endpoint agent at an endpoint device, including: operating theendpoint agent to selectively subscribe to events corresponding toactivities occurring at an endpoint platform; processing events receivedfrom a message bus by the endpoint agent, where the events processed bythe endpoint agent are events to which the endpoint agent hassubscribed; and communicating, to a service, information correspondingto the events processed by the endpoint agent. Other embodiments of thisaspect of the invention may include corresponding stand-alone and/ornetwork computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded onone or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform one ormore of these actions.

Certain embodiments include a system including: a processor; a data buscoupled to the processor; and a non-transitory, computer-readablestorage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, thecomputer program code interacting with a plurality of computeroperations and including instructions executable by the processor andconfigured for: operating an endpoint agent to selectively subscribe toevents corresponding to activities occurring at an endpoint platform.The system also includes processing events received from a message busby the endpoint agent, where the events processed by the endpoint agentare events to which the endpoint agent has subscribed. The system alsoincludes communicating, to a service, information corresponding to theevents processed by the endpoint agent. Other embodiments of this aspectof the invention may include corresponding stand-alone and/or networkcomputer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded on one ormore computer storage devices, each configured to perform one or more ofthese actions.

Certain embodiments include a non-transitory, computer-readable storagemedium embodying computer program code, the computer program codeincluding computer executable instructions configured for: operating anendpoint agent to selectively subscribe to events corresponding toactivities occurring at an endpoint platform; processing events receivedfrom a message bus by the endpoint agent, where the events processed bythe endpoint agent are events to which the endpoint agent hassubscribed; and communicating, to a service, information correspondingto the events processed by the endpoint agent. Other embodiments of thisaspect of the invention may include corresponding stand-alone and/ornetwork computer systems, apparatus, and computer programs recorded onone or more computer storage devices, each configured to perform one ormore of these actions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings. The use of the samereference number throughout the several figures designates a like orsimilar element.

FIG. 1 is a generalized illustration of an endpoint device that can beused in the implementation of the disclosed protected endpoint system;

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an edge device that may be usedfor communications between the endpoint device and a network;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an electronic environment 300 inwhich certain embodiments of the disclosed system may operate;

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of an exemplary security analyticssystem that may be implemented by security services within a protectedendpoint and/or security services in communication with the protectedendpoint;

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of one example of an electronicenvironment in which certain embodiments of a protected endpoint may beimplemented;

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b depict a simplified block diagram of anotherelectronic environment in which certain embodiments of a protectedendpoint may operate;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing one example of an implementation of aunified endpoint system;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart depicting operations that may be executed incertain embodiments of the unified endpoint system;

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint collector of the unified endpointsystem;

FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint agent of the unified endpoint system;

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint core of the unified endpoint system;and

FIG. 12 depicts an electronic environment in which certain embodimentsof various types of endpoint agents may operate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for operatinga protected endpoint. Certain aspects of the invention reflect anappreciation that the same activities occurring at the protectedendpoint device may be analyzed from different perspectives. Certainaspects of the invention also reflect an appreciation that it may bedesirable to select which activities occurring at the protected endpointdevice are to be monitored. Certain aspects of the invention alsoreflect an appreciation that it may be desirable to selectively controlevents that are provided to various endpoint agents. Certain aspects ofthe invention also reflect an appreciation that may be desirable toeasily add and remove certain services used with the endpoint device.

For the purposes of this disclosure, an endpoint device refers to aninformation processing system and broadly includes any device that iscapable of storing, processing and communicating data. An informationprocessing system may include any instrumentality or aggregate ofinstrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit,receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, detect,record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information,intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, entertainment,or other purposes. For example, an information handling system may be apersonal computer, a mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone, aconsumer electronic device, a connected “smart device,” a networkappliance, a network storage device, a network gateway device, a serveror collection of servers or any other suitable device and may vary insize, shape, performance, functionality, and price. The informationhandling system may include volatile and/or non-volatile memory, and oneor more processing resources such as a central processing unit (CPU) orhardware or software control logic. Additional components of theinformation handling system may include one or more storage systems, oneor more wired or wireless interfaces for communicating with othernetworked devices, external devices, and various input and output (I/O)devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, speakers, a trackpad, a touchscreen and a display device (including a touch sensitivedisplay device). The information handling system may also include one ormore buses operable to transmit communication between the varioushardware components.

For the purposes of this disclosure, computer-readable media may includeany instrumentality or aggregation of instrumentalities that may retaindata and/or instructions for a period of time. Computer-readable mediamay include, without limitation, storage media such as a direct accessstorage device (e.g., a hard disk drive or solid state drive), asequential access storage device (e.g., a tape disk drive), opticalstorage device, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and/orflash memory; as well as communications media such as wires, opticalfibers, microwaves, radio waves, and other electromagnetic and/oroptical carriers; and/or any combination of the foregoing.

FIG. 1 is a generalized illustration of an endpoint device 100 that canbe used in the implementation of the disclosed protected endpointsystem. The endpoint device 100 includes a processor (e.g., centralprocessor unit or “CPU”) 102, input/output (I/O) devices 104, such as adisplay, a keyboard, a mouse, and associated controllers, a storagesystem 106, and various other subsystems 108. In various embodiments,the endpoint device 100 may be configured to interact with one or moredevices such as, without limitation, USB sticks, wireless USB, memorycards, card readers, floppy drives, CD/DVD players and burners, digitalcameras, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), MP3 players,external hard drives, portable hard drives, firewire devices, PCMCIAdevices, Zip drives, biometric devices, etc.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint device 100 also includes networkport 110 operable to connect to a network 140, which is likewiseaccessible by a service provider server 142. The endpoint device 100likewise includes system memory 112, which is interconnected to theforegoing via one or more buses 114. System memory 112 further includesoperating system (OS) 116 and in various embodiments may also include aunified endpoint system 118. In certain embodiments, the unifiedendpoint system 118 may interface with local security services 120 toprovide a protected endpoint. In certain embodiments, the unifiedendpoint system 118 may interact with one or more external securityservices through external services communication handlers 122. In oneembodiment, the endpoint device 100 is able to download the unifiedendpoint system 118 from the service provider server 142. In anotherembodiment, the unified endpoint system 118 is provided as a servicefrom the service provider server 142.

In various embodiments, the unified endpoint system 118 provides aflexible platform to implement a protected endpoint. In certainembodiments, the overall configuration of an endpoint device 100 havingthe unified endpoint system 118 is readily configured to implement aprotected endpoint having the desired security functionality. In certainembodiments, the configuration of the unified endpoint system 118 may bereadily reconfigured to implement and/or remove security functionality.An endpoint risk assessment operation. In certain embodiments, theunified endpoint system 118 improves processor efficiency, and thus theefficiency of the endpoint device 100, by protecting the endpoint device100 from security threats and/or detecting potential securityvulnerabilities. As will be appreciated, once the endpoint device 100 isconfigured to implement the unified endpoint system 118, the endpointdevice 100 becomes a specialized computing device specificallyconfigured to perform endpoint security protection operations and is nota general purpose computing device. Moreover, the implementation of theunified endpoint system 118 on the endpoint device 100 improves thefunctionality of the endpoint device 100 and provides a useful andconcrete result of security protection for the endpoint device.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of an edge device that may be usedfor communications between the endpoint device 100 and a network. Asused herein, an edge device, such as the edge device 202 shown in FIG. 2, broadly refers to a device providing an entry point into a network140. Examples of such edge devices 202 may include routers, routingswitches, integrated access devices (IADs), multiplexers, wide-areanetwork (WAN) access devices, and network security appliances. Incertain embodiments, the network 140 may be a private network (e.g., anenterprise network), a semi-public network (e.g., a service providercore network), or a public network (e.g., the Internet).

Skilled practitioners of the art will be aware that edge devices 202 areoften implemented as routers that provide authenticated access tofaster, more efficient backbone and core networks. Furthermore, currentindustry trends include making edge devices 202 more intelligent, whichallows core devices to operate at higher speed as they are not burdenedwith additional administrative overhead. Accordingly, such edge devices202 often include Quality of Service (QoS) and multi-service functionsto manage different types of traffic. Consequently, it is common todesign core networks with switches that use routing protocols such asOpen Shortest Path First (OSPF) or Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)for reliability and scalability. Such approaches allow edge devices 202to have redundant links to the core network, which not only providesimproved reliability, but enables enhanced, flexible, and scalablesecurity capabilities as well.

In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented toinclude a communications/services architecture 204, various pluggablecapabilities 212, a traffic router 210, and a pluggable hostingframework 208. In certain embodiments, the communications/servicesarchitecture may be implemented to provide access to and from variousnetworks 140, cloud services 206, or a combination thereof. In certainembodiments, the cloud services 206 may be provided by a cloudinfrastructure familiar to those of skill in the art. In certainembodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented to provide supportfor a variety of generic services, such as directory integration,logging interfaces, update services, and bidirectional risk/contextflows associated with various analytics. In certain embodiments, theedge device 202 may be implemented to provide temporal information,described in greater detail herein, associated with the provision ofsuch services.

In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented as ageneric device configured to host various network communications, dataprocessing, and security management capabilities. In certainembodiments, the pluggable hosting framework 208 may be implemented tohost such capabilities in the form of pluggable capabilities 212. Incertain embodiments, the pluggable capabilities 212 may includecapability ‘1’ 214 (e.g., basic firewall), capability ‘2’ 216 (e.g.,general web protection), capability ‘3’ 218 (e.g., data sanitization),and so forth through capability ‘n’ 220, which may include capabilitiesneeded for a particular operation, process, or requirement on anas-needed basis.

In certain embodiments, the pluggable capabilities 212 may be sourcedfrom various cloud services 206. In certain embodiments, the pluggablehosting framework 208 may be implemented to provide certain computingand communication infrastructure components, and foundationcapabilities, required by one or more of the pluggable capabilities 212.In certain embodiments, the pluggable hosting framework 208 may beimplemented to allow the pluggable capabilities 212 to be dynamicallyinvoked. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize that many suchembodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended tolimit the spirit, scope or intent of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an electronic environment 300 inwhich certain embodiments of the disclosed system may operate. Incertain embodiments, the electronic environment 300 includes a pluralityof endpoint devices 305 a-305 e each operating in the context of arespective unified endpoint system 310 a-310 e to implement a pluralityof protected endpoints, shown generally at 315. As used herein, aprotected endpoint is an endpoint device that includes internal securityservices and/or cooperates with external security services to implementvarious security functions such as, for example, without limitation,data loss prevention, data theft prevention, virus protection, malwareprotection, spyware protection, unauthorized and/or unsecured datatransfers to and from other endpoint devices, etc. In certainembodiments, the protected endpoints 315 implement a policy-basedapproach to network security that may use the endpoint devices 305 tocomply with particular criteria before they are granted access tonetwork resources. As an example, a given endpoint device 305 may berequired to have a particular operating system (OS), or version thereof,a Virtual Private Network (VPN) client, anti-virus software with currentupdates, and so forth. In various embodiments, the protected endpoint302 may be implemented to perform operations associated with thedetection of anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior.In various embodiments, the protected endpoints 315 may be implementedto collect and provide certain information associated with an event,described in greater detail herein. In certain embodiments, theprotected endpoint 302 may be implemented to provide temporalinformation, such as timestamp information, associated with suchoperations.

In certain embodiments, the protected endpoints 315 may include personalcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), smart phones, mobile telephones, digital cameras,video cameras, or other devices that are capable of storing, processingand communicating data. In certain embodiments, one or more of theprotected endpoints 315 may communicate with electronic resources overnetwork 140, cloud services 206, etc. In certain embodiments, thecommunication of the data may take place in real-time or near-real-time.As used herein, real-time broadly refers to processing and providinginformation within a time interval brief enough to not be discernable bya user. As an example, a cellular phone conversation may be used tocommunicate information in real-time, while an instant message (IM)exchange may be used to communicate information in near real-time. Incertain embodiments, the communication of the information may take placeasynchronously. For example, an email message may be stored on anendpoint device 305 when it is offline. In this example, the informationmay be communicated to its intended recipient once the endpoint device305 gains access to a network 140.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of an exemplary security analyticssystem 400 that may be implemented by security services within aprotected endpoint and/or security services in communication with theprotected endpoint. In certain embodiments, the security analyticssystem 400 may be implemented to be scalable. In certain embodiments,the security analytics system 400 may be implemented in a centralizedlocation, such as a corporate data center. In these embodiments,additional resources may be added to the security analytics system 400as needs grow. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 400may be implemented as a distributed system. In these embodiments, thesecurity analytics system 400 may span multiple information processingsystems. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 400 maybe implemented in a cloud environment. In certain embodiments, thesecurity analytics system 400 be implemented in a virtual machine (VM)environment. In such embodiments, the VM environment may be configuredto dynamically and seamlessly scale the security analytics system 400 asneeded. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize that many suchembodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended tolimit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 400 shown in FIG.4 may include an event queue analytics 404 module, described in greaterdetail herein. In certain embodiments, the event queue analytics 404sub-system may be implemented to include an enrichment module 406 and astreaming analytics 408 module. In certain embodiments, the securityanalytics system 400 may be implemented to provide log storage,reporting, and analytics capable of performing streaming 408 andon-demand 410 analytics operations. In certain embodiments, suchoperations may be associated with defining and managing a user profile,detecting anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior,adaptively responding to mitigate risk, or a combination thereof, asdescribed in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 400 may beimplemented to provide a uniform platform for storing events andcontextual information associated with various user behaviors andperforming longitudinal analytics. As used herein, longitudinalanalytics broadly refers to performing analytics of user behaviorsoccurring over a particular period of time. As an example, a user mayiteratively attempt to access certain proprietary information stored invarious locations. In addition, the attempts may occur over a briefperiod of time. To continue the example, the fact that the informationthe user is attempting to access is proprietary, that it is stored invarious locations, and the attempts are occurring in a brief period oftime, in combination, may indicate the user behavior enacted by the useris suspicious. As another example, certain entity identifier information(e.g., a user name) associated with a user may change over time. In thisexample, the change in user name, during a particular period of time orat a particular point in time, may represent suspicious user behavior.

In certain embodiments, an event stream collector 402 may be implementedto collect event and related contextual information associated withpotential security threats, security vulnerabilities, and/or varioususer behaviors. In these embodiments, the method by which the event andcontextual information is selected to be collected by the event streamcollector 402 is a matter of design choice. In certain embodiments, theevent and contextual information collected by the event stream collector402 may be processed by an enrichment module 406 to generate enricheduser behavior information. In certain embodiments, the enrichment mayinclude certain contextual information related to a particular userbehavior or event. In certain embodiments, the enrichment may includecertain temporal information, such as timestamp information, related toa particular user behavior or event.

In certain embodiments, enriched user behavior information may beprovided by the enrichment module 406 to a streaming 408 analyticsmodule. In turn, the streaming 408 analytics module may provide some orall of the enriched user behavior information to an on-demand 410analytics module. As used herein, streaming 408 analytics broadly refersto analytics performed in near real-time on enriched user behaviorinformation as it is received. Likewise, on-demand 410 analytics broadlyrefers herein to analytics performed, as they are requested, on enricheduser behavior information after it has been received. In certainembodiments, the enriched user behavior information may be associatedwith a particular event. In certain embodiments, the enrichment module406 and streaming analytics 408 modules may be implemented to performevent queue analytics 404 operations.

In certain embodiments, the on-demand 410 analytics may be performed onenriched user behavior associated with a particular interval of, orpoint in, time. In certain embodiments, the streaming 408 or on-demand410 analytics may be performed on enriched user behavior associated witha particular user, group of users, one or more entities, or acombination thereof. In certain embodiments, the streaming 408 oron-demand 410 analytics may be performed on enriched user behaviorassociated with a particular resource, such as a facility, system,datastore, or service. Those of skill in the art will recognize thatmany such embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is notintended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, the results of various analytics operationsperformed by the streaming 408 or on-demand 410 analytics modules may beprovided to a storage Application Program Interface (API) 414. In turn,the storage API 412 may be implemented to provide access to variousdatastores ‘1’ 416 through ‘n’ 418, which in turn are used to store theresults of the analytics operations. In certain embodiments, the unifiedendpoint system 118 may be implemented with a logging and reportingfront-end, which is used to receive the results of analytics operationsperformed by the streaming analytics module 408. In certain embodiments,the datastores ‘1’ 416 through ‘n’ 418 may variously include a datastoreof entity identifiers, temporal events, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 400 may include arisk scoring 420 module implemented to perform risk scoring operations.In certain embodiments, functionalities of the risk scoring 420 modulemay be provided in the form of a risk management service 422. In certainembodiments, the risk management service 422 may be implemented toperform operations associated with defining and managing a user profileIn certain embodiments, the risk management service 422 may beimplemented to perform operations associated with detecting anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior and/or security threatsand responding to mitigate risk. In certain embodiments, the riskmanagement service 422 may be implemented to provide the results ofvarious analytics operations performed by the streaming 406 or on-demand408 analytics modules. In certain embodiments, the risk managementservice 422 may be implemented to use the storage API 412 to accessvarious enhanced cyber behavior and analytics information stored on thedatastores ‘1’ 414 through ‘n’ 416. Skilled practitioners of the artwill recognize that many such embodiments are possible. Accordingly, theforegoing is not intended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a simplified block diagram of one example of an electronicenvironment 500 in which certain embodiments of a protected endpoint 315may be implemented. In certain embodiments, endpoint devices operate inthe context of individual unified endpoint systems 310 to implement aprotected endpoint 315. In certain embodiments, the protected endpoint315 includes one or more endpoint agents 506 that communicateinformation relating to activities occurring at the protected endpoint315 in corresponding analytics/event information 510 to one or more edgedevices 202. In certain embodiments, analytics/event information 510 maybe communicated from the edge device 202 to security analytics system520 for processing. In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 alsoprovides communication between the protected endpoint 315 and network140 and/or cloud services 206. In certain embodiments, communicationbetween the protected endpoint 315, network 140, and/or cloud services206 may be controlled by the security analytics system 520 to preventsecurity-related attacks and/or breaches.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented to perform operations associated with detecting anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior and responding tomitigate risk. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520may be implemented in combination with one or more endpoint agents(discussed in further detail herein), one or more edge devices 202,various cloud services 206, and a network 140 to perform suchoperations. In certain embodiments, certain functional aspects of thesecurity analytics system 520 may be implemented within the protectedendpoints 315 such that event information associated with activitieswithin a protected endpoint is communicated to security analytics system520 operating at a server side of a network.

In certain embodiments, the network edge device 202 may be implementedin a bridge, a firewall, or a passive monitoring configuration. Incertain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented as softwarerunning on an information processing system. In certain embodiments, thenetwork edge device 202 may be implemented to provide integratedlogging, updating and control. In certain embodiments, the edge device202 may be implemented to receive network requests and cyber activityinformation, such as user behaviors, threat detection, etc., in the formof analytics/event information 510 from the protected endpoints 315.

In certain embodiments, the edge device 202 may be implemented toreceive enriched user behavior information in the analytics/eventinformation 510 from the endpoint agent 506 of the protected endpoint315. It will be appreciated that such enriched user behavior informationmay not be available for provision to the edge device 202 when aprotected endpoint 315 is not implemented with a corresponding endpointagent 506 having user behavior security functions. However, it will berecognized that the advantages associated with the disclosed embodimentsare achievable without the presence of user behavior information in theanalytics/event information 510.

In certain embodiments, a given user behavior may be enriched by anassociated endpoint agent 506 attaching contextual information to arequest. In certain embodiments, the context is embedded within anetwork request, which is then provided as enriched user behaviorinformation in the analytics/event information 510. In certainembodiments, the contextual information may be concatenated, orappended, to a request, which in turn may be provided as enriched userbehavior information in the analytics/event information 510. In theseembodiments, the enriched user behavior information may be unpacked uponreceipt and parsed to separate the request and its associated contextualinformation.

In certain embodiments, new flow requests may be accompanied by acontextual information packet sent to the edge device 202. In theseembodiments, the new flow requests may be provided as enriched userbehavior information in the analytics/event information 510. In certainembodiments, an endpoint agent operating at a protected endpoint 315 mayalso send updated contextual information to the edge device 202 once itbecomes available. As an example, an endpoint agent may share a list offiles that have been read by a current process at any point in time oncethe information has been collected. To continue the example, such a listof files may be used to determine which data the endpoint agent may beattempting to exfiltrate.

In certain embodiments, point analytics processes executing on the edgedevice 202 may request a particular service. As an example, risk scoresassociated with a particular event on a per-user basis may be requested.In certain embodiments, the service may be requested from the securityanalytics system 520. In certain embodiments, the service may berequested from various cloud services 206.

In certain embodiments, contextual information associated with aparticular user behavior may be attached to various network servicerequests. In certain embodiments, the request may be wrapped and thenhandled by proxy. In certain embodiments, a small packet of contextualinformation associated with a user behavior may be sent with a servicerequest. In certain embodiments, service requests may be related toDomain Name Service (DNS), web browsing activity, email, and so forth,all of which are essentially requests for service by a protectedendpoint 315. In certain embodiments, such service requests may beassociated with temporal event information, described in greater detailherein. Consequently, such requests can be enriched by the addition ofuser behavior contextual information (e.g., UserAccount,interactive/automated, data-touched, temporal event information, etc.).Accordingly, the edge device 202 can then use this information to managethe appropriate response to submitted requests.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented in different operational configurations. In certainembodiments, the security analytics system 520 may be implemented aloneor in conjunction with the endpoint agent of a protected endpoint 315.In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented by using an endpoint agent at a protected endpoint 315 incombination with the edge device 202. In certain embodiments, cloudservices may likewise be implemented for use by the protected endpoint315, the edge device 202, and the security analytics system 520,individually or in combination. In certain embodiments, the securityanalytics system 520 may be oriented to performing risk assessmentoperations related to user actions, program actions, data accesses, or acombination thereof. In certain embodiments, program actions may betreated as a proxy for the user.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 506 of a protected endpoint315 may be implemented to update the security analytics system 520 withuser behavior and associated contextual information, thereby allowing anoffload of certain analytics processing overhead. In certainembodiments, this approach allows for longitudinal risk scoring, whichassesses risk associated with certain user behavior during a particularinterval of time. In certain embodiments, the security analytics system520 may be implemented to access risk scores associated with the sameuser account, but accrued on different protected endpoints 315. It willbe appreciated that such an approach may prove advantageous when anadversary is “moving sideways” through a network environment, usingdifferent protected endpoints 315 to collect information.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may apply riskmitigations in a way that maximizes security effort return-on-investment(ROI). In certain embodiments, this approach may be accomplished byproviding additional contextual and user behavior information associatedwith user requests. As an example, a web gateway may not concern itselfwith why a particular file is being requested by a certain entity at aparticular point in time. Accordingly, if the file cannot be identifiedas malicious or harmless, there is no context available to determinehow, or if, to proceed. To extend the example, the edge device 202 andsecurity analytics system 520 may be coupled such that requests can becontextualized and fitted into a framework that evaluates theirassociated risk. In certain embodiments, such an approach works wellwith web-based data loss protection (DLP) approaches, as each transferis no longer examined in isolation, but in the broader context of anidentified user's actions, at a particular time, on the network 140.

As another example, the security analytics system 520 may be implementedto perform risk scoring processes to decide whether to block or allowunusual flows. In certain embodiments, this approach is applicable todefending against point-of-sale (POS) malware, a breach technique thathas become increasingly more common in recent years. In certainembodiments, while various edge device 202 implementations may not stopall such exfiltrations, they may be able to complicate the task for theattacker.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beoriented to leverage contextual information associated with various userbehaviors within the system. In certain embodiments, data flow trackingis performed by one or more endpoint agents in the protected endpoints315, which allows the quantity and type of information associated withparticular hosts to be measured. In turn, this information may be usedto determine how the edge device 202 handles requests. Bycontextualizing such user behavior on the network 140, the securityanalytics system 520 can provide intelligent protection, makingdecisions that make sense in the broader context of an organization'sactivities. In certain embodiments, such an approach allows theinformation flowing through an organization, and the networks theyemploy, to be tracked, and substantial data breaches prevented. Skilledpractitioners of the art will recognize that many such embodiments andexamples are possible in view of the teachings of the presentdisclosure. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit thespirit, scope or intent of the invention.

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b depict a simplified block diagram of anotherelectronic environment in which certain embodiments of a protectedendpoint may operate. In certain embodiments, analyses performed by thesecurity analytics system 520 may be used to identify anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious behavior associated with a user. Incertain embodiments, the anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicioususer behavior may be identified at a particular point in time, duringthe occurrence of an event, the enactment of a user behavior, or acombination thereof.

In certain embodiments, information associated with user behavior may bestored in a user profile. As used herein, a user profile broadly refersto a collection of information that uniquely describes a user's identityand their associated behavior, whether the behavior occurs within aphysical realm or cyberspace. In certain embodiments, the user profilemay be stored in a repository of user profiles 670. In certainembodiments, as described in greater detail herein, the user profile mayinclude user profile attributes 612, user behavior factors 614, usermindset factors 628, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented with a risk-adaptive protection module 623, a securitypolicy management module 625, or a combination thereof. In certainembodiments, the risk-adaptive protection module 623 may be implementedto perform various risk-adaptive operations, described in greater detailherein. In certain embodiments, various risk-adaptive behavior factors674, likewise described in greater detail herein, may be used to performthe risk-adaptive protection operations. In certain embodiments, therisk-adaptive behavior factors 674 may include user profile attributes612, user behavior factors 614, user mindset factors 628, or acombination thereof. In these embodiments, the risk-adaptive behaviorfactors 674 used to perform the risk-adaptive protection operations is amatter of design choice.

As used herein, a user profile attribute 612 broadly refers to data ormetadata that can be used, individually or in combination with otheruser profile attributes 612, to uniquely ascertain the identity of auser. In certain embodiments, the user profile attributes 612 mayinclude certain personal information. In certain embodiments, thepersonal information may include non-sensitive personal informationassociated with a user, such as their name, title, position, role, andresponsibilities. In certain embodiments, the personal information maylikewise include technical skill level information, peer information,expense account information, paid time off (PTO) information, dataanalysis information, insider information, misconfiguration information,third party information, or a combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the personal information may contain sensitivepersonal information associated with a user. As used herein, sensitivepersonal information (SPI), also commonly referred to as personallyidentifiable information (PII), broadly refers to any information usableto ascertain the identity of a user, either by itself, or in combinationwith other information, such as contextual information described ingreater detail herein. Examples of SPI may include the full or legalname of a user, initials or nicknames, place and date of birth, home andbusiness addresses, personal and business telephone numbers, theirgender, and other genetic information.

Additional examples of SPI may include government-issued identifiers,such as a Social Security Number (SSN) or a passport number, vehicleregistration plate and serial numbers, and driver's license numbers.Other examples of SPI may include certain email addresses and socialmedia identifiers, credit and debit card numbers, and other digitalidentity information. Yet other examples of SPI may includeemployer-issued identifiers, financial transaction information, creditscores, electronic medical records (EMRs), insurance claim information,personal correspondence, and so forth. Further examples of SPI mayinclude user authentication factors 604, such as biometrics 606, tokens608, user identifiers and passwords 610, and personal identificationnumbers (PINs).

In certain embodiments, the user authentication factors 604 may be usedto authenticate the identity of a user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662.In certain embodiments, the user authentication factors 608 may be usedto ensure that a particular user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662, isassociated with their corresponding user profile, rather than a userprofile associated with another user. In certain embodiments, the userauthentication factors 604 may include a user's biometrics 606, anassociated security token 608, (e.g., a dongle containing cryptographickeys), or a user identifier/password (ID/PW) 610.

In certain embodiments, the user authentication factors 604 may be usedin combination to perform multi-factor authentication of a user, such asuser ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662. As used herein, multi-factor authenticationbroadly refers to approaches requiring two or more authenticationfactors. In general, multi-factor authentication includes three classesof user authentication factors 604. The first is something the userknows, such as a user ID/PW 610. The second is something the userpossesses, such as a security token 608. The third is something that isinherent to the user, such as a biometric 606.

In certain embodiments, multi-factor authentication may be extended toinclude a fourth class of factors, which includes one or more userbehavior factors 614, or portions thereof. In these embodiments, thefourth class of factors may include user behavior the user haspreviously enacted, is currently enacting, or is expected to enact atsome point in the future. In certain embodiments, the enactment of auser behavior may be associated with a particular event. In certainembodiments, multi-factor authentication may be performed on recurringbasis. In various embodiments, the multi-factor authentication may beperformed at certain time intervals during the enactment of a particularuser behavior. In certain embodiments, the time interval may be uniform.In certain embodiments, the time interval may vary or be random.

In certain embodiments, the multi-factor authentication may be performedaccording to the occurrence of an event or the enactment of a particularuser behavior, such as accessing a resource 650. In various embodiments,certain combinations of the multi-factor authentication described hereinmay be used according to the enactment of a particular user behavior.From the foregoing, those of skill in the art will recognize that theaddition of such a fourth class of factors not only strengthens currentmulti-factor authentication approaches, but further, allows the factorsto be more uniquely associated with a given user and their correspondinguser profile.

Those of skill in the art will be aware that it is not uncommon forhackers, criminals and other actors to use various SPI to impersonate auser in order to gain unauthorized access to various systems, data, orfacilities. It is likewise not uncommon for such individuals tomasquerade as a user in order to collect their associated SPI for thepurpose of identity theft. One known approach to gathering a user's SPIis to illicitly capture a data stream, such as a flow of network packetsthat include SPI sent by a user to another machine, such as an externalsystem 880. Defenses against such approaches include encrypting the datastream prior to its communication across a network, such as the internalnetwork 644 or external network 646 shown in FIG. 6 .

However, other approaches, such as the use of a key logger, maysurreptitiously capture the user's keystrokes or user gestures 626,described in greater detail herein, and communicate the resulting datastream in their native form to a hacker or other infiltrator. Anotherissue is the possibility that a normally-trusted insider, such as asecurity administrator 668, may have access to a decrypted data streamas part of their day-to-day responsibilities. As an example, a securityadministrator 668 may be using a security analytics system 520 toperform threat analysis related to a particular user. In the process,they may be exposed to various SPI associated with the user, such ascertain user IDs and passwords 610. It will be appreciated that suchexposure creates the opportunity for a security breach, whether intendedor not. Another approach is to impersonate a legitimate website. In suchapproaches, the user may navigate to the site and innocently enter theirID/password 610, only to have them captured for later use in illegalactivities.

As used herein, a user behavior factor 614 broadly refers to informationassociated with a user's behavior, whether the behavior occurs within aphysical realm or cyberspace. In certain embodiments, user behaviorfactors 614 may include the user's access rights 616, the user'sinteractions 618, and the date/time/frequency 620 of when theinteractions 618 are enacted. In certain embodiments, the userinteractions 618 may include user/device 630, user/network 642,user/resource 648, user/user 660 interactions, or some combinationthereof. In certain embodiments, the user/device 630 interactions mayinclude an interaction between a user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662,and an protected endpoint 315. In certain embodiments, the user behaviorfactors 614 include the user's location 624, and the gestures 626 usedto enact the interactions 618.

In certain embodiments, the user gestures 626 may include key strokes ona keypad, a cursor movement, a mouse movement or click, a finger swipe,tap, or other hand gesture, an eye movement, or some combinationthereof. In certain embodiments, the user gestures 626 may likewiseinclude the cadence of the user's keystrokes, the motion, force andduration of a hand or finger gesture, the rapidity and direction ofvarious eye movements, or some combination thereof. In certainembodiments, the user gestures 626 may include various audio or verbalcommands performed by the user.

In various embodiments, certain date/time/frequency 620 user behaviorfactors 614 may be implemented as ontological or societal time, or acombination thereof. As used herein, ontological time broadly refers tohow one instant in time relates to another in a chronological sense. Asan example, a first user behavior enacted at 12:00 noon on May 17, 2017has occurred prior to a second user behavior enacted at 6:39 PM on May18, 2018. Skilled practitioners of the art will recognize one value ofontological time is to determine the order in which various userbehaviors have been enacted.

As likewise used herein, societal time broadly refers to the correlationof certain user profile attributes 612, user behavior factors 614, usermindset factors 628, or a combination thereof, to one or more instantsin time. As an example, user ‘A’ 602 may access a system 654 to downloada customer list at 3:47 PM on Nov. 3, 2017. Analysis of their userbehavior profile indicates that it is not unusual for user ‘A’ 602 todownload the customer list on a weekly basis. However, examination oftheir user behavior profile also indicates that user ‘A’ 602 forwardedthe downloaded customer list in an email message to user ‘B’ 662 at 3:49PM that same day. Furthermore, there is no record in their user behaviorprofile that user ‘A’ 602 has ever communicated with user ‘B’ 662 in thepast. Moreover, it may be determined that user ‘B’ 662 is employed by acompetitor. Accordingly, the correlation of user ‘A’ 602 downloading thecustomer list at one point in time, and then forwarding the customerlist to user ‘B’ 662 at a second point in time shortly thereafter, is anexample of societal time.

In a variation of the prior example, user ‘A’ 602 may download thecustomer list at 3:47 PM on Nov. 3, 2017. However, instead ofimmediately forwarding the customer list to user ‘B’ 662, user ‘A’ 602leaves for a two week vacation. Upon their return, they forward thepreviously-downloaded customer list to user ‘B’ 662 at 9:14 AM on Nov.20, 2017. From an ontological time perspective, it has been two weekssince user ‘A’ 802 accessed a system 654 to download the customer list.However, from a societal time perspective, they have still forwarded thecustomer list to user ‘B’ 662, despite two weeks having elapsed sincethe customer list was originally downloaded.

Accordingly, the correlation of user ‘A’ 602 downloading the customerlist at one point in time, and then forwarding the customer list to user‘B’ 662 at a much later point in time, is another example of societaltime. More particularly, it may be inferred that the intent of user ‘A’602 did not changed during the two weeks they were on vacation.Furthermore, user ‘A’ 602 may have attempted to mask an intendedmalicious act by letting some period of time elapse between the timethey originally downloaded the customer list and when they eventuallyforwarded it to user ‘B’ 662. From the foregoing, those of skill in theart will recognize that the use of societal time may be advantageous indetermining whether a particular user behavior is acceptable, anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious.

As used herein, mindset factors 628 broadly refer to information used todetermine the mental state of a user at a particular point in time,during the occurrence of an event or an enactment of a user behavior, orcombination thereof. As used herein, mental state broadly refers to ahypothetical state corresponding to the way a user may be thinking orfeeling. In certain embodiments, the user mindset factors 628 mayinclude a personality type. Examples of known approaches for determininga personality type include Jungian types, Myers-Briggs type indicators,Keirsy Temperament Sorter, Socionics, Enneagram of Personality, andEyseneck's three-factor model.

In certain embodiments, the mindset factors 628 may include variousbehavioral biometrics. As likewise used herein, a behavioral biometricbroadly refers to a physiological indication of a user's mental state.Examples of behavioral biometrics may include a user's blood pressure,heartrate, respiratory rate, eye movements and iris dilation, facialexpressions, body language, tone and pitch of voice, speech patterns,and so forth.

Certain embodiments of the invention reflect an appreciation thatcertain user behavior factors 614, such as user gestures 626, mayprovide additional information related to determining a user's mentalstate. As an example, a user entering text at a quick pace with arhythmic cadence may indicate intense focus. Likewise a userintermittently entering text with forceful keystrokes may indicate theuser is in an agitated state. As another example, the user mayintermittently enter text somewhat languorously, which may indicatebeing in a thoughtful or reflective state of mind. As yet anotherexample, the user may enter text with a light touch with an unevencadence, which may indicate the user is hesitant or unsure of what isbeing entered.

Certain embodiments of the invention likewise reflect an appreciationthat while the user gestures 626 may indicate the mental state of auser, they may not provide the reason for the user to be in a particularmental state. Likewise, certain embodiments of the invention include anappreciation that certain user gestures 626 and behavioral biometricsare reflective of a user's personality type. As an example, aggressive,forceful keystrokes combined with an increased heart rate may indicatenormal behavior for a particular user when composing end-of-monthperformance reviews. In various embodiments, certain user behaviorfactors 614, such as user gestures 626, may be correlated with certaincontextual information.

As used herein, contextual information broadly refers to anyinformation, directly or indirectly, individually or in combination,related to a particular user behavior. In certain embodiments, userbehavior may include a user's physical behavior, cyber behavior, or acombination thereof. As likewise used herein, a user's physical behaviorbroadly refers to any user behavior occurring within a physical realm,such as speaking, gesturing, facial patterns or expressions, walking,and so forth. More particularly, such physical behavior may include anyaction enacted by a user that can be objectively observed, or indirectlyinferred, within a physical realm. In certain embodiments, the objectiveobservation, or indirect inference, of the physical behavior may beperformed electronically.

As an example, a user may attempt to use an electronic access card toenter a secured building at a certain time. In this example, the use ofthe access card to enter the building is the action and the reading ofthe access card makes the user's physical behaviorelectronically-observable. As another example, a first user mayphysically transfer a document to a second user, which is captured by avideo surveillance system. In this example, the physical transferal ofthe document from the first user to the second user is the action.Likewise, the video record of the transferal makes the first and seconduser's physical behavior electronically-observable. As used herein,electronically-observable user behavior broadly refers to any behaviorexhibited or enacted by a user that can be observed through the use ofan electronic device (e.g., an electronic sensor), a computing device orsystem (e.g., an endpoint device 304), computer instructions (e.g., asoftware application), or a combination thereof.

Cyber behavior, as used herein, broadly refers to any behavior occurringin cyberspace, whether enacted by an individual user, a group of users,or a system acting at the behest of an individual user, a group ofusers, or an entity. More particularly, cyber behavior may includephysical, social, or mental actions that can be objectively observed, orindirectly inferred, within cyberspace. As an example, a user may use anendpoint device 304 to access and browse a particular website on theInternet. In this example, the individual actions performed by the userto access and browse the website constitute a cyber behavior. As anotherexample, a user may use an endpoint device 304 to download a data filefrom a particular system at a particular point in time. In this example,the individual actions performed by the user to download the data file,and associated temporal information, such as a time-stamp associatedwith the download, constitute a cyber behavior. In these examples, theactions are enacted within cyberspace, in combination with associatedtemporal information, which makes them electronically-observable.

As likewise used herein, cyberspace broadly refers to a networkenvironment, such as an internal network 644 or external network 646,capable of supporting communication between two or more entities. Incertain embodiments, the entity may be a user, a protected endpoint 315,or various resources, described in greater detail herein. In certainembodiments, the entities may include various protected endpoint 315 orresources 650 operating at the behest of an entity, such as a user. Incertain embodiments, the communication between the entities may includeaudio, image, video, text, or binary data.

In certain embodiments, the contextual information may include a user'sauthentication factors 604. In certain embodiments, contextualinformation may likewise include various user identity resolutionfactors, such as personal information associated with the user, thedate/time/frequency 620 of various user behavior, the user's location624, the user's role or position in an organization, their associatedaccess rights 616, and certain user gestures 626 employed by the user inthe enactment of a user behavior. Other contextual information maylikewise include various user interactions, whether the interactions arewith a protected endpoint 315, a network 644, 646, a resource 850, oranother user. In certain embodiments, user behaviors, and their relatedcontextual information, may be collected at particular points ofobservation, and at particular points in time, described in greaterdetail herein.

In certain embodiments, a user profile may be processed with associatedcontextual information to generate correlated contextual information. Incertain embodiments, the correlated contextual information, along with auser's user profile, may be used to perform certain user behavioranalysis. In certain embodiments, the user behavior analysis may beperformed by the security analytics system 520. In certain embodiments,the security analytics system 520 may be implemented to process a userprofile and certain correlated contextual information associated with auser to determine their mental state at a particular point in time. Incertain embodiments, the mental state of a user at a particular point intime may be used in combination with various user profile attributes 612and user behavior factors 614, in the context of an associated userstate, to infer a user's intent.

In certain embodiments, a user profile may be used with a first set ofcontextual information to determine the user's mental state at a firstpoint in time and a second set of contextual information to determinetheir mental state at a second point in time. In certain embodiments,the user's mental state at a first point in time may correspond to theoccurrence of a first user event and the user's mental state at a secondpoint in time may correspond to the occurrence of a second user event.Certain embodiments of the invention reflect an appreciation that such afirst and second set of contextual information may be decidedlydifferent, which may provide context for the user's mental state atdifferent times and during the occurrence of different user events.Likewise, the first and second set of contextual information may besubstantively the same, which may provide an indication that while theuser's mental state may be different at two points in time, or duringthe occurrence of two different user events, the cause of their mentalstate may not be related to the contextual information that wascollected at the two points in time.

It will be appreciated that over time, the user behavior of a particularuser, such as user ‘A’ 602, will be uniquely different and distinct fromanother user, such as user ‘B’ 662. Accordingly, user profile ‘1’ willuniquely reflect the user behavior of user ‘1’, just as user profile ‘n’will uniquely reflect the user behavior of user ‘n’. As an example, user‘A’ 602 may have a user profile attribute 612 of sales administrator.Upon arriving at their office in the morning, the user consistentlychecks their email, item by item, responding to each in turn, followedby processing expense reports for field sales personnel. Then, afterlunch, the user may access and review sales forecasts on an internalsystem 654. Furthermore, the user may exhibit sporadic keyboard entryinterspersed with extensive mouse activity, or user gestures 626, whenperusing the sales forecasts.

Moreover, personality type information associated with user ‘A’ 602 mayindicate the user consistently exhibits a positive, outgoing attitude.In this example, the sequence of the activities enacted by user ‘A’ 602throughout the day, and their frequency, correspond to their expecteddate/time/frequency 620 user behavior factors 614. Likewise, thekeyboard cadence and other user gestures 626 are examples of granularuser behavior factors 614, while the personality type information is anexample of an abstract user behavior factor 614.

As another example, user ‘B’ 662 may have a user profile attribute 612of financial controller. Upon arriving at their office in the morning,the user usually scans their email messages, responding only to thosethat are urgent. Then they check the daily budget status of eachdepartment to see whether they are conforming to their respectiveguidelines. After lunch, the user may follow up on emails that are lessurgent, followed by updating the organization's financials, likewise onan internal system 654. Additionally, user ‘B’ 662 may exhibitdeliberate keyboard entry interspersed with iterative mouse activity, oruser gestures 626, when updating financial information. Moreover,personality type information associated with user ‘B’ 662 may indicatethey consistently exhibit a reserved, introspective and contemplativeattitude. As in the prior example, the sequence of the activitiesenacted by user ‘B’ 662 throughout the day, and their frequency,correspond to their expected date/time/frequency 620 user behaviorfactors 614. Likewise, as before, the keyboard cadence and other usergestures 626 are examples of granular user behavior factors 614, whilethe personality type information is an example of an abstract userbehavior factor 614.

It will likewise be appreciated that the user behavior of a particularuser may evolve over time. As an example, certain user behaviorexhibited by a user during the first month of assuming a new positionwithin an organization may be quite different than the user behaviorexhibited after being in the position for six months. To continue theexample, the user may be somewhat tentative when learning to access andinteract with unfamiliar resources 650 in the first month in theposition, but by the sixth month, such access and interaction iscommonplace and routine.

In certain embodiments, a user behavior factor 614 associated with aparticular user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662, may be used by thesecurity analytics system 520 to compare the user's current userbehavior to past user behavior. If the user's current user behaviormatches their past user behavior, then the security analytics system 520may determine that the user's user behavior is acceptable. If not, thenthe security analytics system 520 may determine that the user's userbehavior is anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious.

However, as described in greater detail herein, a change in a particularuser's user behavior over time may not be anomalous, abnormal,unexpected, or malicious. Instead, it may be acceptable behavior thatsimply evolves over time as a natural result of day-to-day user/device630, user/network 642, user/resource 648, or user/user 660 interactions.In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented to determine whether such changes in a user's user behaviorover time are acceptable, anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious.In certain embodiments, a user behavior profile may be implemented incombination with the security analytics system 520 to make this temporaldetermination.

It will be appreciated that anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicioususer behavior may include inadvertent or compromised user behavior. Forexample, the user may have innocently miss-entered a request for datathat is proprietary to an organization. As another example, the user maybe attempting to access confidential information as a result of beingcompromised. As yet another example, a user may attempt to accesscertain proprietary data from their home, over a weekend, and late atnight. In this example, the user may be working from home on a projectwith an impending deadline. Accordingly, the attempt to access theproprietary data is legitimate, yet still anomalous, abnormal orunexpected as the attempt did not occur during the week, from the user'splace of employment, during normal work hours. However, the userbehavior may manifest in context with consistent remote access patternsand provide sufficient evidence to determine the nature of the activity.

Likewise, the security analytics system 520 may determine that theuser's user behavior to be malicious. As yet another example, animpostor may be attempting to pose as a legitimate user in an attempt toexploit one or more resources 650. In this example, the attempt toexploit one or more resources 650 is malicious user behavior. As yetstill another example, a legitimate user may be attempting to increasetheir level of access to one or more resources 650. In this example, theuser's attempt to increase their level of access may indicate malicioususer behavior.

To further extend these examples, such resources 650 may include variousfacilities 652, systems 654, data stores 656, or services 658. Incertain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented to block a user if it is determined their user behavior isanomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious. In certain embodiments,the security analytics system 520 may be implemented to modify a requestsubmitted by a user if it is determined the request is anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious. In certain embodiments, the securityanalytics system 520 may be implemented to modify an outcome. Forexample, the security analytics system 520 may encrypt a file when acopy operation or request is detected.

In certain embodiments, the user profile may be implemented as acyberprofile. A cyberprofile, as used herein, broadly refers to acollection of information that uniquely describes an entity and theirassociated behavior within cyberspace. In certain embodiments, thesecurity analytics system 520 may be implemented to use informationassociated with certain user behavior elements to define and manage auser profile. A user behavior element, as used herein, broadly refers toa discrete element of a user's behavior during the performance of aparticular operation, or the occurrence of a particular event, in aphysical realm, cyberspace, or a combination thereof. In certainembodiments, such user behavior elements may be associated with auser/device 630, a user/network 642, a user/resource 648, a user/user660 interaction, or combination thereof.

As an example, user ‘A’ 602 may use a protected endpoint 315 to browse aparticular web page on a news site on the Internet. In this example, theindividual actions performed by user ‘A’ 602 to access the web page areuser behavior elements that constitute a user behavior. As anotherexample, user ‘A’ 602 may a protected endpoint 315 to download a datafile from a particular system 654. In this example, the individualactions performed by user ‘A’ 602 to download the data file, includingthe use of one or more user authentication factors 604 for userauthentication, are user behavior elements that constitute a userbehavior. In certain embodiments, the user/device 630 interactions mayinclude an interaction between a user, such as user ‘A’ 602 or ‘B’ 662,and a protected endpoint 315.

In certain embodiments, the user/device 630 interaction may includeinteraction with a protected endpoint 315 that is not connected to anetwork at the time the interaction occurs. As an example, user ‘A’ 602or ‘B’ 662 may interact with a protected endpoint 315 that is offline,using applications 632, accessing data nor 634, or a combinationthereof, it may contain. Those user/device 630 interactions, or theirresult, may be stored on the protected endpoint 315 and then be accessedor retrieved at a later time once the protected endpoint 315 isconnected to the internal network 644 or external network 646.

In certain embodiments, the protected endpoint 315 may be used tocommunicate data through the use of an internal network 644, an externalnetwork 646, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, theinternal network 644 and the external network 646 may include a publicnetwork, such as the Internet, a physical private network, a virtualprivate network (VPN), or any combination thereof. In certainembodiments, the internal network 644 and external network 646 maylikewise include a wireless network, including a personal area network(PAN), based on technologies such as Bluetooth. In various embodiments,the wireless network may include a wireless local area network (WLAN),based on variations of the IEEE 802.11 specification, commonly referredto as Wi-Fi. In certain embodiments, the wireless network may include awireless wide area network (WWAN) based on an industry standardincluding various 3G, 4G and 5G technologies.

In certain embodiments, the user/resource 648 interactions may includeinteractions with various resources 650. In certain embodiments, theresources 650 may include various facilities 652 and systems 654, eitherof which may be physical or virtual, as well as data stores 656 andservices 658. In certain embodiments, the user/user 660 interactions mayinclude interactions between two or more users, such as user ‘A’ 602 and‘B’ 662. In certain embodiments, the user/user interactions 860 may bephysical, such as a face-to-face meeting, via a user/device 630interaction, a user/network 642 interaction, a user/resource 648interaction, or some combination thereof.

In certain embodiments, the user/user 660 interaction may include aface-to-face verbal exchange between two users. In certain embodiments,the user/user 660 interaction may include a written exchange, such astext written on a sheet of paper, between two users. In certainembodiments, the user/user 660 interaction may include a face-to-faceexchange of gestures, such as a sign language exchange, between twousers. In certain embodiments, temporal event information associatedwith various interactions 630, 642, 648, 660 may be collected and usedto define and manage a user profile.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented to observe user behavior at one or more points ofobservation within a physical domain or cyberspace environment. Incertain embodiments, the points of observation may occur during varioususer interactions, such as user/device 630, user/network 642,user/resource 648, and user/user 660 interactions. As an example, auser/user 660 interaction may include an interaction between user ‘A’602 and ‘B’ 662.

In certain embodiments, the point of observation may include cyberbehavior of various kinds within an internal network 644. As an example,the cyber behavior within an internal 644 network may include a useraccessing a particular internal system 654 or data store 656. In certainembodiments, the point of observation may include cyber behavior ofvarious kinds within an external network 646. As an example, the cyberbehavior within an external network 646 may include a user's socialmedia activities or participation in certain user forums. Those of skillin the art will recognize that many such examples of user/device 630,user/network 642, user/resource 648, and user/user 660 interactions arepossible. Accordingly, the foregoing is not intended to limit thespirit, scope or intent of the invention.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented to process certain contextual information to ascertain theidentity of an entity at a particular point in time. In certainembodiments, the contextual information may include location data 636.In certain embodiments, the protected endpoint 315 may be configured toreceive such location data 636, which is used as a data source fordetermining the user's location 624.

In certain embodiments, the location data 636 may include GlobalPositioning System (GPS) data provided by a GPS satellite 638. Incertain embodiments, the location data 636 may include location data 636provided by a wireless network, such as from a cellular network tower640. In certain embodiments (not shown), the location data 636 mayinclude various Internet Protocol (IP) or other network addressinformation assigned to the protected endpoint 315 or edge device 202.In certain embodiments (also not shown), the location data 636 mayinclude recognizable structures or physical addresses within a digitalimage or video recording.

In certain embodiments, the protected endpoints 315 may include an inputdevice (not shown), such as a keypad, magnetic card reader, tokeninterface, biometric sensor, digital camera, video surveillance camera,and so forth. In certain embodiments, such protected endpoints 315 maybe directly, or indirectly, connected to a particular facility 652 orsystem 654. As an example, a protected endpoint 315 may be directlyconnected to an ingress/egress system, such as an electronic lock on adoor or an access gate of a parking garage. As another example, aprotected endpoint 315 may be indirectly connected to a physicalsecurity mechanism through a dedicated security network.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may beimplemented as a stand-alone system. In certain embodiments, thesecurity analytics system 520 be implemented as a distributed system. Incertain embodiment, the security analytics system 520 may be implementedas a virtual system, such as an instantiation of one or more virtualmachines (VMs). In certain embodiments, the security analytics system520 may be implemented to use various event data stored in a repositoryof persistent event data 670 to perform certain probability distributionanalyses, described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, the security analytics system 520 may be includerisk-adaptive protection service 664. In certain embodiments, therisk-adaptive protection service 664 may be implemented in a cloudenvironment familiar to those of skill in the art. Those of skill in theart will recognize that many such embodiments are possible. Accordingly,the foregoing is not intended to limit the spirit, scope or intent ofthe invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing one example of an implementation of aunified endpoint system 310. In certain embodiments, the unifiedendpoint system 310 includes an endpoint core 702 that is operable toconfigure one or more endpoint collectors 704 and one or more endpointagents 706 over a common message bus 708. In certain embodiments, suchconfiguration operations may include initial loading of collectors 704and agents 706 for use on the protected endpoint 315. In certainembodiments, such configuration operations are static and only occurduring initialization of the unified endpoint system 310. In certainembodiments, the endpoint core 702 may dynamically load, unload, and/orreconfigure the collectors 704 and agents 706 during operation of theprotected endpoint 315. In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702operates as a conduit for communications between the endpoint collectors704 and endpoint agents 706. In certain embodiments, the endpointcollectors 704 and endpoint agents 706 communicate with the endpointcore 702 through one or more Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)to facilitate communications between the endpoint collectors 704 andendpoint agents. In certain embodiments, a single collector API is usedto facilitate communications between the endpoint collectors 704 and theendpoint core 702. In certain embodiments, a single agent API is used tofacilitate communications between the endpoint agents 706 and theendpoint core 702.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint collectors 704 are configured todetect activities occurring on an endpoint platform 712. As used herein,an endpoint platform includes, without limitation, the kernel 714 and/oruser space 718 operating at an endpoint device 305. In certainembodiments, one or more of the endpoint collectors 704 may beconfigured to detect activities occurring in the kernel 714 of theendpoint platform 712. In certain embodiments, activities occurring inthe kernel 714 may include filesystem activity, process activity,information relating to endpoint device performance metrics, etc. Incertain embodiments, one or more of the endpoint collectors 704 may beconfigured to detect activities occurring in the user space 718 of theendpoint platform 712. In certain embodiments, activities occurring inuser space 718 may include network activity, web browser activity, webbrowser extension activity, etc. In certain embodiments, all endpointcollectors 704 of the unified endpoint system 310 are configured todetect activities in the kernel 714, while activities within user space718 are ignored. In certain embodiments, all endpoint collectors 704 ofthe unified endpoint system 310 are configured to detect activities inthe user space 718, while activities within kernel 714 are ignored. Incertain embodiments, one or more of the endpoint collectors 704 areconfigured to detect activities in the kernel 714, while other endpointcollectors 704 are configured to detect activities in the user space718. In certain embodiments, a single collector 704 may be configured tofilter activities and/or of events occurring on the endpoint platform712 so that only certain activities and/or events at the input of thecollector 704 are used to generate the corresponding events which thecollector 704 places on the message bus 708. It will be recognized, inview of the present disclosure, that various endpoint collectorcombinations and corresponding filter configurations may be employed toprovide the desired event information on the message bus 708.

In certain embodiments, the activities received by one or more of theendpoint collectors 704 include raw activity information that theendpoint collector converts to events corresponding to the detected rawactivities. In certain embodiments, raw activities may be provided fromthe kernel 714. In certain embodiments, the activities received by oneor more of the endpoint collectors 704 are in the form of eventscorresponding to activities occurring on the endpoint platform 712. Incertain embodiments, such events may be provided from the user space 718and/or kernel 714. In certain embodiments, events corresponding to thedetected activities and/or events received by one or more of theendpoint collectors 704 are placed on the common message bus 708 by theendpoint collectors 704.

The example shown in FIG. 7 also includes a plurality of endpoint agents706 configured to receive events from the endpoint collectors 704 overthe message bus 708. In certain embodiments, each endpoint agent 706 isconfigured to selectively process only those events on the message bus708 to which the endpoint agent 706 has subscribed. As used herein,selective processing refers to actual processing of the received eventdata to provide information for further processing by a securityservice, and/or pass-through of one or more of the subscribed events toa security service. In certain embodiments, an endpoint agent 706 mayadd any communication overhead to a pass-through event needed totransfer the events from the endpoint agent 706 to a security service716.

In certain embodiments, a given endpoint agent 706 may subscribe toevents from multiple collectors 704, a subset of events from multiplecollectors 704, or a subset of events from a single collector 704. Forexample, Agent ‘A’ 706 a may subscribe to all events provided on themessage bus 708 from both Collector ‘A’ 704 a and Collector ‘B’ 704 b.In another example, Agent ‘A’ 706 a may subscribe to only a subset ofevents provided on the message bus 708 from Collector ‘A’ 704 a andCollector ‘B’ 704 b. In another example, Agent ‘A’ 706 a may subscribeto only a subset of events provided on the message bus 708 fromCollector ‘B’ 704 b. These examples may be extended to subscriptions byeach endpoint agent 706 for events generated by each collector 704thereby illustrating the versatile manner in which selective processingof events by the endpoint agents 706 may be implemented. Since onlythose events to which an endpoint agent 706 has subscribed areselectively processed by the endpoint agent 706, processing of eventsthat are not relevant to the endpoint agent 706 are avoided therebyreducing the amount of processing resources needed by an endpoint agentto execute the processes for which it is designed.

In the example shown in FIG. 7 , each of the endpoint agents 706 isconfigured with a service connection to provide information to one ormore corresponding security services 716. The information provided by anendpoint agent to a security service 716 is based on events that areselectively processed by the endpoint agent 706. As used herein, asecurity service generally refers to the utility of a functional moduleand is not limited to functions that run as services within the contextof an operating system. In certain embodiments, each endpoint agent 706is associated with a respective security service 716. In the illustratedexample, Agent ‘A’ 706 a has a service connection with Service ‘A’ 716a, Agent ‘B’ 706 b has a service connection with Service ‘B’ 716 b, andAgent ‘C’ 706 c is a service connection with Service ‘C’ 716 c.

In certain embodiments, some of the security services 716 areimplemented within the protected endpoint 315. Such services are shownin FIG. 7 as Service ‘A’ 716 a and Service ‘B’ 716 b. In certainembodiments, one or more security services 716 may be implemented on theprotected endpoint or on a platform exterior to the protected endpoint315. One such service is shown in FIG. 7 as Service ‘C’ 716 c. Incertain embodiments, primary security services required during operationof the protected endpoint 315 may be implemented at the protectedendpoint 315, while secondary security services not required duringoperation of the protected endpoint 315 may be offloaded to an exteriorplatform. In certain embodiments, some security services may be includedas a set of standard security services that are consistently provided ona protected endpoint 315, while optional security services may beprovided as add-ons. The architecture and operation of the unifiedendpoint system 310 provides the versatility and flexibility to providesuch options.

In certain embodiments, the events to which an endpoint agent 706subscribes may be limited to those events that are needed by theendpoint agent 706 to provide the information required by the connectedsecurity service 716. In certain embodiments, the information providedfrom a given endpoint agent 706 to a given security service 716 isgenerated by directly executing processing operations on the subscribedevent data itself. Additionally, or on the alternative, the endpointagent 706 may operate as a conduit for passing subscribed events to theconnected security service 716 without directly processing the actualdata of the subscribed events. In certain embodiments, subscribed eventsthat are passed directly through the endpoint agent 706 to thecorresponding security service 716 may include additional communicationoverhead unrelated to direct processing of the data of the subscribedevent.

Certain embodiments of the unified endpoint system 310 provide aversatile and flexible platform for executing security services based onevents occurring in different portions of the endpoint platform 712. Incertain embodiments, different endpoint agents 706 may subscribe to oneor more of the same events thereby allowing the same events to be viewedfrom different security perspectives by the endpoint agents 706 andsecurity services 716. In certain embodiments, the configuration of theunified endpoint system 310 may be programmed remotely through theendpoint core 702 to implement various combinations and configurationsfor the endpoint collectors 704 and endpoint agents 706.

In certain embodiments, the activities and/or events collected by acollectors 704 may be dynamically controlled based on the efficiency ofthe collector's processing operations. For example, an endpointcollector may be dynamically configured to only process a reduced subsetof the total activities/events that it is designed to collect. Incertain embodiments, an endpoint collector may be dynamically configuredto reduce the frequency with which it collects one or moreactivities/events. In certain embodiments, the unified endpoint system310 may operate to implement multiple dynamic configurations dependingon the degree of processing efficiency of the endpoint collector.

In certain embodiments, the events to which an endpoint agent 706 may bedynamically controlled based on the efficiency of the endpoint agent'sand/or security service's processing operations. For example, anendpoint agent may be dynamically configured to reduce the number and/ortype of events to which it subscribes, where the endpoint agentsubscribes to a higher number and/or more complex set of events duringoptimal efficiency, and subscribes to a reduced subset of event typesand/or number of events when efficiency is less than optimal. In certainembodiments, an endpoint agent may be dynamically configured to reducethe frequency at which it processes one or more subscribed events. Incertain embodiments, the unified endpoint system 310 may operate toimplement multiple dynamic configurations of an endpoint agent 706depending on the degree of processing efficiency of the endpoint agent.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart depicting operations that may be executed incertain embodiments of the unified endpoint system 310. In certainembodiments, an endpoint collector operating on the protected endpointdevice receives information corresponding to activities occurring on anendpoint platform at operation 802. In certain embodiments, the endpointcollector places a plurality of events corresponding to the detectedactivities on a message bus at operation 804. In certain embodiments, atoperation 808, the endpoint agent selectively processes one or more ofthe plurality of events received on the message bus. In certainembodiments, the plurality of events selectively processed by theendpoint agent are events to which the endpoint agent has subscribed. Incertain embodiments, a service connection is provided between theendpoint agent and a software service at operation 810. In certainembodiments, the communications between the endpoint agent and softwareservice include information corresponding to one or more of thesubscribed events.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint collector 704 of the unified endpointsystem 310. In certain embodiments, the endpoint collector 704 includesmultiple communication paths over which various types of information aretransferred both internally and externally. Certain information externalto the collector 704 may be received from the common message bus 708,while other information, such as activity information and/or events maybe received from the endpoint platform 712.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint collector 704 implements acollector configuration path 902 to carry information which initiallyconfigures and, in certain embodiments, dynamically configures theoperation of the endpoint collector 704. In certain embodiments,collector configuration information may be communicated from theendpoint core 702 over the message bus 708. In certain embodiments, theendpoint core 702 provides collector configuration communications tomultiple collectors 704. Accordingly, certain embodiments of theendpoint collector 704 may include an ingress filter 904 to ensure thatthe endpoint collector 704 only responds to collector configurationcommunications intended for the particular endpoint collector whileignoring configuration communications intended for other endpointcollectors.

In certain embodiments, collector configuration information is passedfrom the ingress filter 904 to an input of a collector configurationengine 906. In certain embodiments, the collector configuration engine906 uses the information in the configuration communications to defineone or more filter definitions shown in FIG. 9 as Filter Def1 908,Filter Def2 910, Filter Def3 912, described in further detail herein. Incertain embodiments, the collector configuration engine 906 uses theinformation in the configuration communications to configure a collectormanager 914. In turn, the collector manager 914 may communicate with apolicy enforcement module 916. In certain embodiments, the policyenforcement module 916 responds to certain events occurring at theendpoint platform 712 to provide immediate enforcement of certainsecurity policies at the endpoint collector 704. For example, the policyenforcement module 916 may be configured to prevent transmission ofpredetermined files from the protected endpoint 315 to another entityover a network. If the policy enforcement module 916 receivesinformation from the endpoint platform 712 that an attempt to transmitone or more of the predetermined files is underway, the policyenforcement module 916 may direct the endpoint platform 712 to preventthe transmission. In another example, a user at a protected endpoint 315may attempt to launch an unauthorized web browser at the protectedendpoint 315. If the policy enforcement module 916 detects an attempt tolaunch the unauthorized web browser, the policy enforcement module 916may direct the endpoint platform 712 to prevent the launch. As will berecognized in view of the teachings of the present disclosure, thepolicy enforcement module 916 may be used to enforce various securitypolicies, some of which may be initialized by the collectorconfiguration engine 906 based on configuration communications receivedfrom the endpoint core 702.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint collector 704 implements a commandand control path, shown generally at 920. In certain embodiments,command and control communications may include information provided bythe endpoint core 702 to the endpoint collector 704. In certainembodiments, the endpoint core 702 provides command and controlcommunications to multiple endpoint collectors 704. Accordingly, certainembodiments use the ingress filter 904 to ensure that the endpointcollector 704 only responds to command and control communicationsintended for the particular endpoint collector while ignoring commandand control communications intended for other endpoint collectors. Incertain embodiments, command and control communications may be passedfrom the ingress filter 904 to a collector manager 914. In certainembodiments, the collector manager 914 operates to enable and disablethe sensors of the collector 704. In the example shown in FIG. 9 , thecollector 704 includes two sensors—Sensor A 918 and Sensor B 920. Incertain embodiments, the collector manager 914 may initialize sensors918 and 920 using information provided by the collector configurationengine 906 that is based on configuration information received, forexample, from the endpoint core 702 on the message bus 708. In certainembodiments, the collector manager may dynamically configure sensors 918and 920 based on command and control information on the message bus 708.In certain embodiments, such dynamic configuration may include enablingand/or disabling one or more of the sensors 918 and 920.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint collector 704 implements an eventhandling path, shown generally at 922. In certain embodiments, one ormore of the sensors 918, 920 monitor activity at the endpoint platform712 and provide event information to the input of an egress filter 924.In certain embodiments, the activity provided from the endpoint platform712 to one or more of the sensors 918, 920 are provided as rawactivities. In certain embodiments, such raw activities are converted toan event format. In certain embodiments, the activity provided from theendpoint platform to one or more of the sensors 918, 920 is provided inthe form of events. In certain embodiments, the events provided from thesensors 918, 920 are provided to the input of an egress filter 924. Incertain embodiments, the filter definitions 908, 910, and 912 configurethe egress filter 924 so that only certain events are passedtherethrough to the input of a message normalization module 926. Incertain embodiments, the filtered events received by the messagenormalization module 926 are placed in a standardized format forcommunication on the message bus 708. In certain embodiments, the filterdefinitions 908, 910, and 912 are defined during an initialconfiguration of the endpoint collector 704 and remain static throughoutoperation of the endpoint collector 704. In certain embodiments, filterdefinitions along 908, 910 and 912 may be dynamically updated duringoperation of the endpoint collector 704 based on command and controlinformation received by the collector configuration engine 906.

Based on the teachings of the present disclosure, those skilled in theart will recognize that various other embodiments of the endpointcollector 704 may be implemented. Accordingly, the embodiment of theendpoint collector 704 shown and described in connection with FIG. 9 isfor illustrative purposes and is not intended to describe all potentialendpoint collector architectures that may be used in the unifiedendpoint system 310.

FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint agent 706 of the unified endpointsystem 310. In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 706 includesmultiple communication paths over which various types of information aretransferred both internally and externally.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 706 implements an agentconfiguration path 1002 to carry information which initially configuresand, in certain embodiments, dynamically reconfigures the operation ofthe endpoint agent 706. In certain embodiments, agent configurationinformation may be communicated from the endpoint core 702 over themessage bus 708. In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 providesagent configuration communications to multiple agents 706. Accordingly,certain embodiments of the endpoint agent 706 may include an ingressfilter 1004 to ensure that the endpoint agent 706 only responds to agentconfiguration communications intended for the particular endpoint agentwhile ignoring configuration communications intended for other endpointagents.

In certain embodiments, agent configuration information is passed fromthe ingress filter 1004 to an input of a collector configuration engine1006. In certain embodiments, the configuration engine 1006 uses theinformation in the configuration communications to define an initial setof events to which the endpoint agent 706 is to be subscribed. Incertain embodiments, the configuration engine 1006 configures an eventingress filter 1018 with subscribed events that are to be passed throughthe ingress filter 1018 for selective processing by the endpoint agent706. In certain embodiments, the configuration engine 1006 uses theinformation in the configuration communications to configure an agentmanager 1014. In certain embodiments, the configuration engine 1006 maycommunicate with a business logic analytics/policy decisions module 1016to implement an initial configuration of the module 1016. In certainembodiments, the business logic analytics/policy decisions module 1016executes analytics operations on subscribed events for provision to aservice connector 1020 based, for example, on a set of policy rules. Incertain embodiments, the service connector 1020 provides a connectionfor communication of the results of the analytics operations from theendpoint agent 706 to the corresponding security service 716. As will berecognized in view of the teachings of the present disclosure, thebusiness logic analytics/policy decisions module 1016 may be used toexecute various analytics operations and/or implement various securitypolicies, some of which may be initialized by the configuration engine1006 based on configuration communications received from the endpointcore 702.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 706 implements a command andcontrol path, shown generally at 1022. As with the configurationinformation, the message bus 708 may include command and controlinformation directed to multiple agents. Accordingly, certainembodiments filter command and control information specific to theparticular endpoint agent 706 at the ingress filter 1004 so that onlythe intended endpoint agent 706 responds to the information. In certainembodiments, command and control information for the endpoint agent 706is passed from the output of the ingress filter 1004 to an input of theagent manager 1014 for controlling the parameters of the serviceconnector 1020 and/or business logic analytics/policy decisions module1016. In certain embodiments, the parameters of the service connector1020 and/or business logic analytics/policy decisions module 1016 may bedynamically updated during operation of the endpoint agent 706 bycommands provided from the endpoint core 702 and/or other endpointagents provided from the message bus 708 through the command and controlpath 1022.

Certain embodiments of the endpoint agent 706 implement an eventhandling path, shown generally at 1026. In certain embodiments, theendpoint agent 706 receives events from the message bus 708. In manyinstances, the events on the message bus 708 include events other thanthose that are to be processed by the endpoint agent 706. Accordingly,the event ingress filter 1018 is configured to pass only those events towhich the endpoint agent 706 has subscribed. In certain embodiments, thesubscribed events are provided to an input of the business logicanalytics/policy decisions module 1016 for analytics processing. Incertain embodiments, the results of the event processing by the businesslogic analytics/policy decisions module 1016 are passed to the input ofthe service connector 1020 for communication to the security service716. In certain embodiments, the business logic analytics/policydecisions module 1016 may communicate with other endpoint agents 706 atan output 1026 a of the event handling path 1026. In certain examples,operations executed on the subscribed events by the endpoint agent 706may be pertinent to operations of other endpoint agents andcorresponding services. In certain embodiments, communications betweenendpoint agents 706 may provide a platform in which computational powerfor event analysis may be more evenly distributed between the endpointagents 706.

In certain embodiments, all of the subscribed events at the output ofthe event ingress filter 1018 may be passed directly to the serviceconnector 1020 for communication to the security service 716. In certainembodiments, only a subset of the subscribed events are passed to theservice connector 1020 through an egress filter 1030. In certainembodiments, the subset of subscribed events are passed to the serviceconnector 1020 from the output of the egress filter 1030.

In certain embodiments, the command and control path 1022 may include anoutput path 1022 a over which the business logic analytics/policydecisions module 1016 may communicate with the endpoint core 702 torequest a subscription to certain events. In certain embodiments, theendpoint agent 706 receives reconfiguration and authorization for thesubscription from the endpoint core 702 along the agent configurationpath 1002. In certain embodiments, the configuration engine 1006responds to the reconfiguration and authorization to change the eventsubscription parameters of the events ingress filter 1018.

Based on the teachings of the present disclosure, those skilled in theart will recognize that various other embodiments of the endpoint agent706 may be implemented. Accordingly, the embodiment of the endpointagent 706 shown and described in connection with FIG. 10 is forillustrative purposes and is not intended to describe all potentialendpoint agent architectures that may be used in the unified endpointsystem 310.

FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of one manner of implementingcertain embodiments of an endpoint core 702 of the unified endpointsystem 310. In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 includesmultiple communication paths over which various types of information aretransferred both internally and externally. In certain embodiments, thecommunication paths include a core configuration path (shown generallyat 1102), a command and control path (shown generally at 1104), and anevent handling path (shown generally at 1106).

As shown in the example of FIG. 11 , the endpoint core 702 may includean endpoint agent API 1110 and an endpoint collector API 1112. Incertain embodiments, the endpoint agent API 1110 and endpoint collectorAPI 1112 allow the endpoint agents 706 and endpoint collectors 704 tocommunicate with one another over the message bus 708. In certainembodiments, the APIs 1110 and 1112 allow the endpoint core 702 tocommunicate configuration information to the endpoint collectors 704 andendpoint agents 706. In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 maycommunicate events relating to its own operation onto the event handlingpath 1106 for provision on the message bus 708. In certain embodiments,the endpoint core 702 may receive events that may be pertinent to itsoperation from the message bus 708 over the event handling path 1106. Incertain embodiments, an event filter 1114 may be employed to ensure thatonly certain events are placed on the message bus 708 and received onthe message bus 708. In certain embodiments, the information passingthrough the event filter 1114 may relate to performance of the unifiedendpoint system 310 as determined by the master endpoint controller1122. In certain embodiments, information relating to the performance ofthe unified endpoint system 310 may be used to dynamically updateparameters of the endpoint collectors and endpoint agents to preventoverutilization and underutilization of the unified endpoint systemresources.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 provides subscribermanagement using a subscription manager 1115 to distribute subscribedevents received from the endpoint collectors 704 to the endpoint agents706. In certain embodiments, subscription management may be implementedvia the command and control path 1022 a of an endpoint agent 706. Incertain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 provides management of themessage bus. Such management may include, for example, management ofwork-items (i.e., memory-pool), queue management, and the thread-poolmanagement. In certain embodiments, the endpoint core 702 interacts withcollectors 704 to provide endpoint information services to the endpointagents 706. Such information services may include process and DNS cacheinformation.

Certain embodiments of the endpoint core 702 include various componentsthat assist the endpoint core 702 to manage the endpoint platform, theendpoint collectors and the endpoint agents. Certain embodiments of theendpoint core include an integrity and update manager 1116. In certainembodiments, the integrity and update manager 1116 checks the integrityof the files that are loaded on the endpoint device 305 as well as toprovide any updates to those files. In certain embodiments, theintegrity and update manager 1116 may check the integrity of the filesimplementing the endpoint agents and collectors as well as to provideany updates to those files.

Certain embodiments of the endpoint core include a master configurationengine 1120, which identifies the endpoint agents and endpointcollectors that are to be installed in the unified endpoint system 310.Certain embodiments of the endpoint core 702 include an endpoint moduleloader 1118 which loads the operational modules onto the endpointplatform 712 during startup of the endpoint device 305. In certainembodiments, the endpoint module loader 1118 is also responsible forloading the endpoint agents and endpoint collectors used in the unifiedendpoint system 310. In certain embodiments, the endpoint module loader1118 may be used to selectively load and/or unload the endpointcollectors 704 on demand.

Based on the teachings of the present disclosure, those skilled in theart will recognize that various other embodiments of the endpoint core702 may be implemented. Accordingly, the embodiment of the endpoint core702 shown and described connection with FIG. 11 is for illustrativepurposes and is not intended to describe all potential endpoint corearchitectures that may be used in the unified endpoint system 310.

FIG. 12 depicts an electronic environment in which certain embodimentsof various types of endpoint agents 1206 may operate. In certainembodiments, the endpoint agent 1206 may be implemented to universallysupport a variety of operating systems, such as Apple Macintosh®,Microsoft Windows®, Linux®, Android® and so forth. In certainembodiments, the endpoint agent 1206 may be implemented to interact withthe endpoint device 305 through the use of low-level hooks 1212 at theOS level. It will be appreciated that the use of low-level hooks 1212allows the endpoint agent 1206 to subscribe to multiple events through asingle hook. Consequently, multiple functionalities provided by theendpoint agent 1206 can share a single data stream, using only thoseportions of the data stream they may individually need. Accordingly,system efficiency can be improved and operational overhead reduced.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 1206 may be implemented toprovide a common infrastructure for pluggable feature packs 1208. Invarious embodiments, the pluggable feature packs 1208 may providecertain security management functionalities. Examples of suchfunctionalities may include various anti-virus and malware detection,data loss protection (DLP), insider threat detection, and so forth. Incertain embodiments, the security management functionalities may includeone or more functionalities associated with detecting anomalous,abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior and adaptivelyresponding to mitigate risk, as described in greater detail herein.

In certain embodiments, a particular pluggable feature pack 1208 may beinvoked as needed by the endpoint agent 1206 to provide a givenfunctionality. In certain embodiments, individual features of aparticular pluggable feature pack 1208 are invoked as needed. It will beappreciated that the ability to invoke individual features of apluggable feature pack 1208, without necessarily invoking all suchfeatures, will likely improve the operational efficiency of the endpointagent 1206 while simultaneously reducing operational overhead.Accordingly, the endpoint agent 1206 can self-optimize in certainembodiments by using the common infrastructure and invoking only thosepluggable components that are applicable or needed for a given userbehavior.

In certain embodiments, the individual features of a pluggable featurepack 1208 may be invoked by the endpoint agent 1206 according to theoccurrence of a particular user behavior, a particular event, or acombination thereof, as described in greater detail herein. In certainembodiments, the individual features of a pluggable feature pack 1208may be invoked by the endpoint agent 1206 at a particular point in time.In these embodiments, the method by which a given user behavior, event,or point in time is selected to invoke the endpoint agent 1206 is amatter of design choice.

In certain embodiments, the individual features of a pluggable featurepack 1208 may be invoked by the endpoint agent 1206 according to thecontext of a particular user behavior. As an example, the context may bethe user enacting the user behavior, their associated riskclassification, which resource they may be requesting, the point in timethe user behavior is enacted, and so forth. In certain embodiments, thepluggable feature packs 1208 may be sourced from various cloud services206. In certain embodiments, the pluggable feature packs 308 may bedynamically sourced from various cloud services 206 by the endpointagent 1206 on an as-need basis.

In certain embodiments, pluggable feature packs may be based on aunified API/SDK with well-defined event categories that are common toall of the plug-ins. In certain embodiments, such plug-ins may beincluded in the endpoint collectors 704, endpoint agents 706, and/ormodules within the endpoint core 702. Such plug-ins may be designed forin-process and/or out-of-process activities.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 1206 may be implemented withadditional functionalities, such as event analytics 1210. In certainembodiments, the event analytics 1210 functionality may include analysisof various user behaviors, described in greater detail herein. Incertain embodiments, the event analytics 1210 functionality may includeanalysis of a particular event. In certain embodiments, the particularevent may be associated with one or more user behaviors. In certainembodiments, the event analytics 1210 functionality may includedetecting anomalous, abnormal, unexpected or malicious user behavior andadaptively responding to mitigate risk, as described in greater detailherein.

In certain embodiments, the endpoint agent 1206 may be implemented witha thin hypervisor 1214, which can be run at Ring −1, thereby providingprotection for the endpoint agent 1206 in the event of a breach. As usedherein, a thin hypervisor broadly refers to a simplified, OS-dependenthypervisor implemented to increase security. As likewise used herein,Ring −1 broadly refers to approaches allowing guest operating systems torun Ring 0 (i.e., kernel) operations without affecting other guests orthe host OS. Those of skill in the art will recognize that many suchembodiments and examples are possible. Accordingly, the foregoing is notintended to limit the spirit, scope or intent of the invention.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present inventionmay be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product.Accordingly, embodiments of the invention may be implemented entirely inhardware, entirely in software (including firmware, resident software,micro-code, etc.) or in an embodiment combining software and hardware.These various embodiments may all generally be referred to herein as a“circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention maytake the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storagemedium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.

Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may beutilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, forexample, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, ordevice. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable medium would include the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), anoptical storage device, or a magnetic storage device. In the context ofthis document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be anymedium that can contain, store, communicate, or transport the programfor use by or in connection with the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be written in an object oriented programming language suchas Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program codefor carrying out operations of the present invention may also be writtenin conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The program codemay execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Embodiments of the invention are described with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) andcomputer program products according to embodiments of the invention. Itwill be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/orblock diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computerprogram instructions. These computer program instructions may beprovided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purposecomputer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce amachine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor ofthe computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, createmeans for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchartand/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer orother programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series ofoperational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmableapparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that theinstructions which execute on the computer or other programmableapparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

The present invention is well adapted to attain the advantages mentionedas well as others inherent therein. While the present invention has beendepicted, described, and is defined by reference to particularembodiments of the invention, such references do not imply a limitationon the invention, and no such limitation is to be inferred. Theinvention is capable of considerable modification, alteration, andequivalents in form and function, as will occur to those ordinarilyskilled in the pertinent arts. The depicted and described embodimentsare examples only, and are not exhaustive of the scope of the invention.Consequently, the invention is intended to be limited only by the spiritand scope of the appended claims, giving full cognizance to equivalentsin all respects.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for operating anendpoint agent at an endpoint device, comprising: providing the endpointdevice with an endpoint agent, the endpoint device and the endpointagent providing a protected endpoint, the endpoint agent comprising anendpoint core and one or more collectors, each collector comprising aconfiguration engine, a business logic analytics module communicatingwith the configuration engine, an ingress filter communicating with thebusiness logic analytics module and an egress filter communicating withthe business logic analytics module; operating the endpoint agent toselectively subscribe, using the business logic analytics module and theingress filter of the endpoint agent, to events corresponding toactivities occurring at an endpoint platform, the ingress filter beingconfigured by the configuration engine to pass through subscribed eventsfor selective processing by the endpoint agent; processing eventsreceived from a message bus by the endpoint agent using the businesslogic analytics module, wherein the events processed by the endpointagent are events to which the endpoint agent has subscribed, and thebusiness logic analytics module is configured to execute analyticsoperations on the events based on a set of policy rules for provision toa service corresponding only to the endpoint agent; and communicating,by the business logic analytics module, to the service corresponding tothe endpoint agent, information corresponding to the events processed bythe endpoint agent, wherein said communicating is performed using aservice connector of the endpoint agent that provides a communicationpath to the service; the endpoint core, endpoint agent, and one or moreendpoint collectors cooperate with one another as resources of a unifiedendpoint system; and the endpoint core dynamically reconfigures at leastone of the endpoint collectors and the endpoint agent during operationof the endpoint device to prevent at least one of overutilization andunderutilization of the resources of the unified endpoint system.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: operating aplurality of endpoint agents to selectively subscribe to eventscorresponding to activities occurring at an endpoint platform, whereineach of the plurality of endpoint agents selectively subscribes to oneor more respective events using an associated business logic analyticsmodule; processing events received from a message bus by each of theplurality of endpoint agents using the associated business logicanalytics module, wherein the events processed by a respective endpointagent are events to which the respective endpoint agent has subscribed;and communicating information, using the associated business logicanalytics module, corresponding to the events processed by respectiveendpoint agents to a service corresponding to each agent.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: operatingthe endpoint agent to communicate over the message bus with the endpointcore to selectively subscribe to the events.
 4. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 3, wherein operating the endpoint agent to communicatewith the endpoint core using an Application Program Interface (API). 5.The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the endpoint agentis configured to receive events over the message bus from the one ormore endpoint collectors.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising: operating the endpoint agent to communicate eventscorresponding to activities occurring at the endpoint agent over themessage bus.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising: operating the business logic analytics module associatedwith the endpoint agent to execute one or more operations includingbusiness logic operations based on subscribed events; analyticsoperations on subscribed events; and/or policy decision operations basedon subscribed events.
 8. A system comprising: a processor; a data buscoupled to the processor; and a non-transitory, computer-readablestorage medium embodying computer program code, the non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium being coupled to the data bus, thecomputer program code interacting with a plurality of computeroperations and comprising instructions executable by the processor andconfigured for: providing the endpoint device with an endpoint agent,the endpoint device and the endpoint agent providing a protectedendpoint, the endpoint agent comprising an endpoint core and one or morecollectors, each collector comprising a configuration engine, a businesslogic analytics module communicating with the configuration engine, aningress filter communicating with the business logic analytics moduleand an egress filter communicating with the business logic analyticsmodule; operating an endpoint agent to selectively subscribe, using thebusiness logic analytics module and the ingress filter of the endpointagent, to events corresponding to activities occurring at an endpointplatform, the ingress filter being configured by the configurationengine to pass through subscribed events for selective processing by theendpoint agent; processing events received from a message bus by theendpoint agent using the business logic analytics module, wherein theevents processed by the endpoint agent are events to which the endpointagent has subscribed, the business logic analytics module is configuredto execute analytics operations on the events for provision to a servicecorresponding to the endpoint agent based on a set of policy rules; andcommunicating, by the business logic analytics module, to the servicecorresponding to the endpoint agent, information corresponding to theevents processed by the endpoint agent, wherein said communicating isperformed using a service connector that provides a communication pathto the service; the endpoint core, endpoint agent, and one or moreendpoint collectors cooperate with one another as resources of a unifiedendpoint system; and the endpoint core dynamically reconfigures at leastone of the endpoint collectors and the endpoint agent during operationof the endpoint device to prevent at least one of overutilization andunderutilization of the resources of the unified endpoint system.
 9. Thesystem of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further configured for:operating a plurality of endpoint agents to selectively subscribe toevents corresponding to activities occurring at an endpoint platform,wherein each of the plurality of endpoint agents selectively subscribesto one or more respective events using an associated business logicanalytics module; processing events received from a message bus by eachof the plurality of endpoint agents, wherein the events processed by arespective endpoint agent are events to which the respective endpointagent has subscribed; and communicating information, using theassociated business logic analytics module, corresponding to the eventsprocessed by respective endpoint agents to a service corresponding toeach agent.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions arefurther configured for: operating the endpoint agent to communicate overthe message bus with the endpoint core to selectively subscribe to theevents.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the endpoint agentcommunicates with the endpoint core using an application programinterface (API).
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the endpoint agentis configured to receive events over the message bus from the one ormore endpoint collectors.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein theinstructions are further configured for: operating the endpoint agent tocommunicate events corresponding to activities occurring at the endpointagent over the message bus.
 14. The system of claim 8, wherein theinstructions are further configured for: operating the business logicanalytics module associated with the endpoint agent to execute one ormore operations including business logic operations based on subscribedevents; analytics operations on subscribed events; and/or policydecision operations based on subscribed events.
 15. A non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium embodying computer program code, thecomputer program code comprising computer executable instructionsconfigured for: providing the endpoint device with an endpoint agent,the endpoint device and the endpoint agent providing a protectedendpoint, the endpoint agent comprising an endpoint core and one or morecollectors, each collector comprising a configuration engine, a businesslogic analytics module communicating with the configuration engine, aningress filter communicating with the business logic analytics moduleand an egress filter communicating with the business logic analyticsmodule; operating an endpoint agent to selectively subscribe, using thebusiness logic analytics module and the ingress filter of the endpointagent, to events corresponding to activities occurring at an endpointplatform, the ingress filter being configured by the configurationengine to pass through subscribed events for selective processing by theendpoint agent; processing events received from a message bus by theendpoint agent using the business logic analytics module, wherein theevents processed by the endpoint agent are events to which the endpointagent has subscribed, and the business logic analytics module isconfigured to execute analytics operations on the events for provisionto a service corresponding to the endpoint agent based on a set ofpolicy rules; and communicating, by the business logic analytics module,to the service corresponding to the endpoint agent, informationcorresponding to the events processed by the endpoint agent, whereinsaid communicating is performed using a service connector that providesa communication path to the service; the endpoint core, endpoint agent,and one or more endpoint collectors cooperate with one another asresources of a unified endpoint system; and the endpoint coredynamically reconfigures at least one of the endpoint collectors and theendpoint agent during operation of the endpoint device to prevent atleast one of overutilization and underutilization of the resources ofthe unified endpoint system.
 16. The non-transitory, computer-readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are furtherconfigured for: operating a plurality of endpoint agents to selectivelysubscribe to events corresponding to activities occurring at an endpointplatform, wherein each of the plurality of endpoint agents selectivelysubscribes to one or more respective events using an associated businesslogic analytics module; processing events received from a message bus byeach of the plurality of endpoint agents using the associated businesslogic analytics module, wherein the events processed by a respectiveendpoint agent are events to which the respective endpoint agent hassubscribed; and communicating information, using the associated businesslogic analytics module, corresponding to the events processed byrespective endpoint agents to a service corresponding to each agent. 17.The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the instructions are further configured for: operating theendpoint agent to communicate over the message bus with the endpointcore to selectively subscribe to the events.
 18. The non-transitory,computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the endpoint agentcommunicates with the endpoint core using an application programinterface (API).
 19. The non-transitory, computer-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the endpoint agent is configured to receiveevents over the message bus from the one or more endpoint collectors.20. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the instructions are further configured for: operating theendpoint agent to communicate events corresponding to activitiesoccurring at the endpoint agent over the message bus.